Jonah Wainwright
Jonah Wainwright is a male changling. He is a stocky, late-middle-aged human baker who keeps to himself and doesn't bother others. He is rather surly and moody and wears a somewhat haunted expression much of the time. He avoids extensive conversation with those he doesn't know well. He has been known to abruptly leave a room and not come back, even while in the midst of a conversation.
Jonah is so anti-social because he has a secret: he is a schizophrenic, which manifests in four other distinct personalities. For Jonah, this presents unique complications for him, for each personality living within Jonah's mind causes him to not only manifest the personality, but also causes him to shapeshift into a physical form complementing the new persona.
Jonah's History:
The region in which Jonah lives is ruled by a noble family. Five years ago, the government was infiltrated by doppelgangers as the vanguard for a group of mind flayers who sought to covertly take over the region. The entire royal family was captured and replaced by shapeshifters posing in their stead. Fortunately, a group of adventurers well-known to the royal family discovered the ruse and exposed the doppelgangers for what they were. Jonah was an artificer in that group of adventurers.
In the climactic battle, the mind flayers ripped open gates to the Far Realm to bring in reinforcements. Jonah possessed a device which would close the rifts, but it required that the device be placed in the Far Realm before being triggered. Before his companions could stop him, Jonah dove through one of the gates and activated the device. It was mere minutes before his companions were able to rescue him from the Far Realm, but the damage had been done. Jonah's changeling mind was completely altered and his personality fragmented into pieces. An unusual side-effect of his exposure was that his shapechanging abilities were expanded to allow him greater flexibility in his transformations.
The royal family was horrified at the cost of repelling the invaders and promised to care for Jonah for the rest of his days. Alas, the people of the region are now extremely xenophobic concerning shapeshifters in general, and if it became common knowledge that Jonah was a changeling and under the protection of the royal family, the political backlash would be catastrophic. To that end, the surviving members of the adventuring group have taken up residence in the town and watch out for Jonah.
Jonah's Personalities:
Jonah is terrified that the secret of his changling nature will be discovered if he were to abruptly switch personalities in public. Hence, whenever he feels like he's losing his mental control, he abruptly leaves the room, where he can safely change shape without drawing attention to himself. To facilitate these sudden changes, he has built a Hat of Disguise and constantly wears it so that he may quickly adjust his attire to that of his new personality.
Jonah's other personalities know of the existance of the others, but only as one would know of a neighbor or co-worker. They are completely unaware that they all co-exist within the same mind. Jonah knows the identities of all four of his alternates, of course, but knows nothing of what they know or how they've acted while his ego been supplanted. Each alter-ego retains its own set of memories, personality, knowledge, skills and ambitions. Interacting with a specific personality is just like meeting a brand new NPC. Determining motives and interests will help the PCs get into good graces with the new persona and will allow them to use the persona as an information resource.
If the PCs befriend Jonah and learn of his condition, they can request that he surrender to any other personality at will. Otherwise, any specific personality must be brought to the fore by succeeding on a Complexity 2 Skill Challenge equal to the PCs' level (6 successes before 3 failures). Primary skills are Diplomacy (Hard DC), Bluff (Mod DC), Intimidation (Hard DC), and Insight (Mod DC). Additionally, the PCs can use the skill which applies to the personality they wish to draw forth as a bonus skill (Mod DC). There is no limit to the number of successes which can be gained by using any of the primary skills.
Jonah's personalities manifest randomly from day to day. To determine which personality Jonah currently manifests, roll 2d6 and consult the following table:
2 - Lerna
3 - Iolaus
4 - Corvus
5 - Alphard
6 - Jonah
7 - Jonah
8 - Jonah
9 - Alphard
10 - Corvus
11 - Iolaus
12 - Lerna
The other surviving members of the adventuring group are: Wyen Oress, the Captain of the Guard, and Faler Kiming, the local innkeeper. The two men are pledged to keep an eye on Jonah and protect him to the best of their abilities. They are extremely protective of him and will react unfavorably to anyone mistreating the man.
Jonah's additional personalities are:
Lerna Amymone, a young, anarchic, female halfling cutpurse and cat-burgler. She wears mottled grey and black leathers with equally dark silk clothing over them and a black silk bandanna on her head. Her specialty is Streetwise information. She can supply information concerning the city, its residents, politics, and the criminal underworld. She is nervous, distrusting and can't abide authority. She actively seeks to undermine the government, but does so through stealth, subterfuge and misdirection.
She is manipulative and more than willing to sell someone out if it benefits her. She is a wanted criminal and has been caught by the constabulary several times. Amazingly, each time she has managed to escape confinement by apparently vanishing into thin air. She has a high reputation among the city thieves for her escape talents, though some believe that she's in league with the city guard somehow.
Iolaus Echidna, an early middle-aged, male half-elf ranger. He wears forest-colored leathers over muted cotton clothing and a dark green veil over the lower half of his face. Iolaus is a master of Nature lore and knows the lands outside the city intimately. He is good-natured and helpful, but is tremendously agoraphobic (fear of confined spaces/crowds). As such, he cannot abide being in the city proper. If he stays in the city for more than a few minutes, he gets light-headed and nauseated, at which time he will immediately attempt to leave the city.
He is at home in the wilds, where the closeness of the trees doesn't bother him, for he knows they mean him no harm. Indeed, he can disappear into the forest as skillfully as any shadow. He disapproves of the local government's policies regarding logging the nearby forests and actively attempts to disrupt the lumberjacks as they work. He also vehemently hates orcs and goblins of all kinds and will attack them on sight.
Corvus Crater, a young human female priestess of the Raven Queen. She wears deep indigo robes and wears a small, miter-like headdress. She is outspoken, opinionated and righteously zealous concerning her faith. Unfortunately for her, her faith is not as zealous of her. She has been officially ex-communicated from the church for arguing blasphemous ideas to the high-ranking clergy members, then attempting to convince their followers of "her truth".
Her perceptions and opinions regarding religion, the gods and life after death are many and varied, but also highly educated and insightful. Indeed, she is more knowledgeable concerning their religions than are many of the clergy of other faiths. She loves to argue and will happily engage in conversation with anyone willing to stand still long enough. Her most fervent wish is to educate the Raven Queen's clergy of the errors of their beliefs and get them to see "the truth".
Alphard Heracles, an old gnome male arcane dabbler, librarian and artificer. He wears voluminous robes of loud, clashing colors, enormous spectacles, and a pointed wizard's hat with a tassel on top which ends in a strange metal arcane symbol. He is very quiet and introspective, preferring to study his books than engage in extended conversation. He is also extraordinarily absent-minded. If it doesn't concern his current interest of study, then he generally forgets about it. He has gotten so involved in his studies that he has forgotten to eat on several occasions and occasionally can be found wandering the streets tinkering with gadgets or reading books, oblivious to passersby.
Alphard is extremely knowledgeable concerning all things arcane. He is equally eager to talk about magic as he is to avoid more "mundane" conversations with those less learned than he. His primary motivation is learning new and interesting things regarding magic, the planes, extra-planar and aberrant creatures, and inventions.
Engagement:
- There is a band of goblins raiding the road which passes through the nearby forest. Iolaus Echidna has attempted to chase them away, but their band is too strong for him. He enlists the aid of the PCs and promises them a valuable reward; assuming he's still around when they get back...
- Lerna Amymone seeks to use the PCs as agents of chaos. Disguised as a poor young child, she attempts to lift the purse of a rival thief but deliberately fumbles and is caught. When the thief tries to punish her, she begs the PCs for aid. She then requests their aid in reacquiring a locket that the thief's companions "stole" from her. The locket is a magical amulet which Lerna was commissioned to steal, but was stolen by the rival thieves instead. She tries to manipulate the PCs into getting the amulet for her, then "disappears" when it's time to pay up.
- Corvus Crater stands on the street corner, haranguing passersby that they don't know the truth about the gods. Should the PCs give her their ear, she tells them of events in their past (past adventures, or PC background info) and warns them about a future event. The event should take place in the near future to prove her precience. When the PCs come back to her for more information, she attempts to use them to get her back into the good graces of the Raven Queen's church.
- Faler Kiming learns that the PCs need magical help of some kind, so he arranges a meeting with Alphard Heracles. The innkeeper never lets them contact Alphard directly, insisting that he be the middle man in the arrangements. Wyen Oress may also arrange similar meetings between the PCs and Iolaus Echidna (though outside the city).
- The PCs encounter Jonah being waylaid by local ruffians because he refused to pay "protection" money to them. When the PCs save him, he offers to arrange a meeting between them and "a friend" to provide them with useful information.
Optional Elements:
Adversarial: Lerna Amymone is selfish and conniving; she is perfectly willing to give PCs information that they require, but in such a way as to cause them additional complications or problems while simultaneously furthering her own goals.
Clandestine: Jonah has no desire to be used as an information resource and just wants to be left alone. His friends may arrange for his alter-egos to meet with the PCs if they feel his knowledge would be of use.
Esoterica: Iolaus Echidna is quite knowledgeable of Nature.
Hobbyist: Jonah is a baker and has no knowledge regarding the other personalities' specialties.
Inside Man: Jonah is very well-liked and respected by the royal family, but he refuses to use that familiarity for the benefit of others for fear of causing problems for the family.
Provocateur: Lerna Amymone is an anarchist who would like nothing more than to overthrow the government.
Shapechanger: Jonah is a changeling.
Unreliable: Each of Jonah's other personalities has their own agendas and if the PCs run afoul of those personae, they may provide false information out of spite or out of a desire to be rid of them. Jonah himself may attempt to mislead the PCs to prevent them from using him as a resource or worse, learning his secret.
